Network Rail is a UK-wide public sector company responsible to the UK Government, via the Office for Rail and Road, for the safety of the rail infrastructure across the UK. Rail infrastructure, as with ports and airports, is reserved to the UK Government as a matter of national security. How we’re funded Network rail is largely funded by a direct grant from the UK Government. In 2020/2021, the grant was £17.6 billion. By 2022/2023, despite the Stonehaven deaths due to a maintenance failure, it had been slashed to £11 billion. https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/rail_subsidies_to_cost_taxpayers_1_300_each_by_march_2023#:~:text=Estimated%20total%20rail%20subsidy%20for,%2D19%20and%202019%2D20) The Scottish Government makes a small contribution to the … Continue reading In the wake of the Stonehaven rail deaths UK Government slashed maintenance budget by nearly 40% but Herald looks elsewhere for blame

BBC Scotland is making much of a one-year fluctuation in road death figures which is not statistically significant and which does not contradict the clear evidence of a longer term steady and dramatic falling trend. They claim: Campaigners have expressed fears over the impact of cuts to road traffic officer numbers in the last decade. Figures obtained by BBC Scotland News reveal there were 548 officers in June – 14% less than in March 2014. The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and road safety charity Brake said a visible presence offered a strong deterrent against offending. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66917013 Note, from the … Continue reading Road deaths remain at roughly half that under Labour

Four days ago, from the Coast Reporter in British Columbia, Canada, with its island archipelago ferry fleet a bit like that of CalMac but in warmer, less windy, waters and with less generous subsidies than Scotland’s islanders get from that SNP Government: FAC calls BC Ferries service to Sunshine Coast ‘unmitigated disaster’ amid cancellations ‘It’s inadequate service all year long, it’s getting worse and worse’: Southern Sunshine Coast FAC tells BC Ferries executives at biannual meeting, and asks for solutions. https://www.coastreporter.net/highlights/fac-calls-bc-ferries-service-to-sunshine-coast-unmitigated-disaster-amid-cancellations-7583193 It’s a near 1 000 word report but the author finds no space to mention, far less blame, the … Continue reading ‘Unmitigated ferries disaster’ has nothing to do with devolved government……in Canada

In the Herald yesterday: Alex Cole-Hamilton has insisted Humza Yousaf will be the “last nationalist first minister of Scotland” as he appealed to SNP voters “looking for a party to inspire them” to back the Liberal Democrats. The plea came as he addressed the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23810236.humza-yousaf-will-last-nationalist-first-minister-scotland/ As the UK Lib Dems do realistically plot another of their once-in-a-generation but ultimately temporary, defeats/replacements of the Tories in the South of England, their 4 Scottish MPs are down there talking-up prospects of a Yoon coalition up here among folk who hate each other’s guts. Their researchers must be … Continue reading Has Lib Dem leader taken to drink as SNP recover from mass media attack?

By Malachi Malagrowther Labour supporting Lord Hardie’s nine-year inquiry into the Edinburgh trams fiasco, at a cost of £13 million, from which he earned over one million pounds, clearly concluded that failings by the Edinburgh City Council officials and its associated arms-length companies were to blame for the debacle which was delivered five years later than scheduled and cost some £1 billion, almost double the original estimate. Tie Ltd, the company chosen by Labour to deliver the project was criticised for its mishandling of the project and particularly not cooperating or collaborating with the other key stakeholders in the project … Continue reading How the media airbrushed Labour’s principal role in the costly Edinburgh Trams debacle out of history

The most recent YouGov poll, for 8-13 September, has been getting media coverage recognising that it’s bad news for Labour but perhaps less so that it might be. First, for Westminster voting intention, the 11 point gap has been reported as a first ‘double figures’ lead for some time but the significant swing of 7 points, from 4 in August to 11 in September, in the wake of Labour’s bussing of English MPs into Rutherglen and Hamilton West, has not got the attention it deserves. Has it been counter-productive? Are our media shielding someone? Second, the Holyrood constituency voting intention … Continue reading Things may be getting even worse for Labour and even better for SNP as by-election looms

Since the beginning of 2023, 30 polls have found a lead for No while only 6 have found a lead for Yes or most recently a tie. Five out of the 6 were carried out by the pollster Find Out Now. Since they started in December 2022, Find Out Now have never found a lead for No. As readers will know, I’m a pretty basic ‘statistician’ but, like you, I can spot a pattern and confidently say that Find Out Now must be doing something different and almost certainly in the construction of the sample of around 1 000 Scots … Continue reading Why does this one pollster repeatedly find a lead for Yes in the Sea of Negativity?

Many thanks to stewartb, Robert Martin and Bob Lamont for researching this for us. According to BBC Scotland, a few hours ago: More than half of the NHS buildings in Scotland which are suspected to contain a potentially dangerous form of concrete have not been fully inspected. The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow is among the sites identified in the desktop survey https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66900470 The QEUH was completed in 2015, 4 years after building had started in 2011. RAAC had been stopped in new building by the mid-1990s, at least 15 years earlier. There is no RAAC in the new … Continue reading Leading academic: ‘RAAC can easily last 50 years and should be able to carry on for several decades after that’

From Tom Gordon today: Labour’s candidate in the Rutherglen & Hamilton West by-election has promised to tackle the scourge of low pay in the area as he accused the SNP of hypocrisy over workers’ rights. Campaigning alongside Scottish leader Anas Sarwar, Michael Shanks said Labour wanted to end zero-hours contracts, extend sick pay and raise the minimum wage if it wins power. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23808638.labour-accuses-snp-hypocrisy-workers-rights-rutherglen/ Do they think the voters of Rutherglen and Hamilton West will believe this if it’s in the Herald? I guess they do and worryingly, some may well do so. The candidate knows he’s trying to fool folks … Continue reading Rutherglen Rumours – Modern Studies teacher should be sacked as he tries to hide truth on low pay from voters in desperate attempt to get very high pay for himself